Saturday, 26 May 2007

Now
that the term "torture" has been put in one-to-one correspondence with
such admittedly unpleasant activities as punching, sleep deprivation, a
handkerchief pulled over one's face and loaded with water, searches by
women upon sensitive Islamic men or the disrespectful handling of
Korans -- what on earth do we call gouging people's eyes out?

Cynic
that I am, I've long wondered how the members of the "pomo community"
would react if they found themselves the objects of some good old-fashioned
line-'em-up-against-the- wall-and-shoot-'em repression. Godwin's Law
(or maybe, The Boy Who Cried "Wolf!") in practice: When you label
everyone who disagrees with you a "Nazi," what do you say when the real Nazis show up?

Monday, 21 May 2007

Saturday, 12 May 2007

Do-It-Yourself 3-D Fabrication

This
is a model of a drywall screw. It's 20 inches long and is made out of
sugar. On a homebrew 3-D thermal fabricator. Other objects made so far:
A dodecahedron, a toroidal coil, and some CNC (computer numeric
control) toast (branded "HELLO WORLD"). Story and more pictures here.

Wednesday, 09 May 2007

One fateful day I resolved never to use the
tube again. What finally pushed me to this decision was getting stuck
in a tunnel on a congested train for a long period. Its one thing to be
stuck in an overheated train, when you have a seat to yourself. Quite
another when you are packed in like a sardine, can't stand up straight,
can't move backwards or forwards and have not the slightest idea
whether you are going to be in that position for five minutes or fifty
minutes... By the time the train eventually moved 20 minutes later I
swore that never again would I put myself in that position.

So
for the next year he walked– and then bicycled– the 5½ miles to work.
And lived to tell the tale!

I could
walk (or cycle, if I owned a bicycle) to work– it's only about 3 miles.
I've actually done it on occasion, including one two-week period when I
was between cars. But then there's the problem of mid-day errands, and
also the problem of early darkness in winter. (And laziness, I'll
admit...)-----Via Diamond Geezer, who linked to Andrew Denny, who mentioned it in this post. Ain't the interweb grand!

Tuesday, 08 May 2007

Lileks! What do you think you’re doing? While you’ve been hanging around here, you’ve already been scooped by the Eden Prairie News on the Kite Fest at Purgatory Creek, and the Coon Rapids Herald is way ahead of you on the debate over the new community center. Where’s that ol’ Jimmy Olsen spirit?